My Mom would cut the buttons off old clothing and saved them in a big tin and yepp I have them. With the price of buttons these days I am glad I have them. There are some buttons back during the depression years that people will pay big money to buy them. I never seem to find the jars full of them at garage sales etc and my stash of buttons is getting low. I also have a stash of very old beads from the 1920's and newer and always looking for more.

I can not ans. that question,but I can not just throw away a pretty button or one that I might use. I really don't like to sew buttons,but would rather do that than pin or throw it away.I can't afford to do that. :shock: :shock:
Guess it is a learned behavior taught by mother or grndmother..Maybe you have to be older or have a fasination for buttons or be finanically able to throw away a perfectly good blouse,shirt or whatever it is with button gone. Actually I am proud and happy to be in the Learned Behavior group.. :lol: :lol:
My 84 yr.old Mother told me yesterday.. Quote, Next time you are at a store please get me some small brass pins. Why I ask? Because I need to put these buttons on this shirt,what do you think they made tiny pins, so old ladies like me can sew on a button..Unquote!!!! :thumbup: She got me on than one :lol: :lol: :lol: BillsBonBon

I do alot of wool applique. Penny rugs, wall hangings, and now I am doing a queen size wool applique on cotton. I like to use the buttons for centerpieces.

I also have buttons like yours..Isn't it nice to have them. Got a drawer in my Treadle machine cabinet..Full of buttons,like you a metal can OLD!! full of buttons.. Mom never left a button on anything either.. You are correct buttons are exspensive. I have all shapes,sizes colors. Wonderful!!! BillsBonBon

I have always loved the older buttons. Today we mostly have plastic buttons -- wild colors and novelty shapes -- but not the same variety and creative influence of the old buttons.

When I started buying old buttons tins/boxes, I could pick them up at auction for a couple of bucks. The last time I bid on a box it went for over $125.00.

There are lots of possibilities for using them, but I do sew them back on clothing.

Or donate them to a quilting guild or crafts for the elderly at a senior home or club,Even Young Girls like the Girl Scouts,Brownies.. Not Nonsense..
BillsBonBon

Boy, do I go for that. Let us know if it works.

Supervising little ones, it is good teaching - sorting by colors, by sizes, counting - remember the counting to a 100. All kinds of math - basic add/subtract. Besides art projects. I saw a really cut "bunny" created with browns shades of buttons and one with the white/beige buttons. Iwould love to create one of these for Easter.

[quote=Ramona Byrd]Can't say I have any weird buttons.....but buttons made from the sex organs of a whale, that's too funny. :lol: :lol:

I have a small collection of buttons, and have used them for some fun crafts and quilts. What's the fascination with them?? I have no idea, but I love to let them fall through my fingers :wink:

It's amazing the ways I find to use them. And when a friend/neighbor comes by looking for a button, we spend some quality time looking through them to find one to match hers. I put them on wall hangings, add them to some of the funky bags I make. I love buttons. I'll PM you my address!!! Jan

I love buttons. I am almost a great grandmother and I have my grandmother's buttons and my mother in law's buttons. One of my grandson's needed 10 buttons for a project in one of his classes...he came to me. lol....It's a good thing.

I made this redwork picture and put buttons all around the picture.

I love love buttons! When I was really small I would draw then on the walls! I made really really small ones but my mom still saw them and beat my butt for it. But even today when I doodle Its all about the button. I collect them in jars and display them in my sewing area. If any one wants to get rid of their collection send them to me. LOL
Lisa

O I also love buttons,when i was a kid the people next door had a larg wooden barrel fulll of bottons thats where it began,Iwould sit for hours and look at bottons.also have made some nice things with them.Ikeep mine in cookie cans love em

I love the way you think! lol

I too do not understand the facination with button collections!

TreeFrog

I love buttons. They look pretty in a nice glass jar or bowl.
Sometimes I even use one as an embellishment but I never sew a button back on a shirt. Heaven forbid!

THese button-covered pickle jars use a LOT of buttons....odd pieces of sequin jewels, etc....anything that can be glued on to a surface with E6000 glue. I made one and my 20 yr old GD wanted one, too.

THese button-covered pickle jars use a LOT of buttons....odd pieces of sequin jewels, etc....anything that can be glued on to a surface with E6000 glue. I made one and my 20 yr old GD wanted one, too.

I'm glad I posted this thread..I do love your stories. Thanks for sharing them.. I now see buttons in a whole new light..

I still don't think Id ever sew a button back on hubby's shirt anytime soon but now buttons have a whole new meaning for me.. I lost both grandmas at a younger age and never got to experience the stories you told here, but I can only imagine what it could of been like. So, when I look at my buttons now I will think of them...

I love buttons and more buttons and never have enough butons.

Still have to buy from time to time. I used on quilts, wall hangings, bags, jackets and Vest. I seperate by colors and put in salt and pepper shakers for display.
You need to get rid of some just pm me. Smile...

ConnieF We used to have a old fabric store here not really a lot of cotton mostly clothing etc and she had buttons by the pound,,, it was so fun. I prob got a gallon of buttons there yeara ago but have gone through most...

Beautiful and a great idea --- thanks!

Recently, in between quilts, I started making doll clothes for my granddaughter(and some for charity)'s American Girl doll. The most fun part for me is trimming them with buttons, and the kids love them. They have gotten SOOOO expensive. If you would like to tell all the people giving you buttons to send them my way, I would LOVE it. My eventual goal is to teach my granddaughter and friend to sew, and quilt. I am SOOO jealous.

The best place to go is estate auctions as most of the time the buttons get tossed in just to get rid of them.

Thank you. Will have grandkids make them at our picnic in the summer.

Show us. Would love to see it

My granddaughter is getting married in June and asked for my buttons! She is putting one on each invitation, several in bridesmaid bouquets and scattered ones on reception tables instead of confetti! Also making her a quilt with signatures and writings in solid squares and then putting the quilt together for her. Using the squares instead of a guest book. She has always been fascinated with my button collection!!

Button collectors find some valuable relics in their accumulated buttons, but that one is not for me! I collect fabric!!!

I love buttons. Sell them on ETSY, if you don't have a button loving friend. I would buy unsorted lots, it's like a treasure hunt, you never know what you'll find.
Let me know if you sell them, PLEASE,
Helbo

Yes, save those buttons! My aunt had a gallon jar of full of buttons for years and when she died they were sold in a sale (I wasn't there). My granddaughters love buttons too. Neighborhood kids would come to me for a button to replace one they had lost--many uses for them!

There is a national button club. You might check in your area and see if there is a branch. It is quite educational and they do very beautiful things with them. There are certain ways in which they have to be displayed and they have classifications that art items are made with them. The buttons we collect are from the 1700 and 1800 hundreds and are real works of art. My favorite is picture buttons which are made of metal and are usually larger than a quarter and are detailed metal sculptures of classical literature and myths. Many of the men collect military buttons. Some buttons are glass in different colors and some are jems, wood and bone. The bakelite are popular because they were the first plastic. They were quite large before zippers and were worth removing for reuse. I also have a collection of sterling silver buttons. It is a total ballgame. High to low. Some libraries have a book "The Big Book of Buttons" that explains the history of each style. It is out of print but usually available in the reference section as it is quite large.

There is a whole lot of people who spend big bucks on collecting buttons...I have a shop just for them on Etsy! Mine are pretty picked over, but i have had lots of antique ones that can sell for $10-$100 each. Better not throw those jars away!

I don't collect buttons unless I know they will look good on a future outfit or to up-date some thing already in the closet But not long ago while waiting my turn at the cutting table in a mark down bin I found some I turned into a cute necklace with a piece of black ribbon and earrings to match 1.50 for jewelry that I'll wear is a good price.-- I' ve seen them on Ebay /Craigslist sell them to some one who wants them free up some space -do less dusting

I have lots of buttons too. I buy myself not sure why.

My mom, grandma, great-grandma, and mother-in-law collected the buttons I have. I do not have lots of knick-knacks in my studio, but the mason jars of buttons are there as a link to those who were here before me. I have added some to them (but that is not why I have the jars) and I have allowed my children and granddaughter to sort them and hold them, but in the end, they go back up on the shelf in the mason jars and are a continuing reminder of the women in my life.

i love buttons, in jars, on shirts,purses, quilts, doll clothes. tell your family to send them to me. i think i have a little more room for extra. dh says no but who is he?

My grandmother was a seamstress in a factory making uniform coats for the soldiers in WW2. I remember that she always let me play in her BIG button box.I loved buttons. Her buttons. Big buttons, small buttons. Colored buttons, metal buttons. Even leather buttons. As I got older (maybe 4-5?) I sewed them to cardboard, and made a loose leaf binder of buttons For years I kept the collection of buttons. Until my grandma died. I was so hurt that she left me. We shared a bedroom and without her I was lonely. I recently without thinking I realized I was hording buttons. Iput them in a big jsr and yes, I take them out and just run my fingers through them.I have no children of my own, but memories last forever. They cost nothing. I am 56 and I still long for my grandma.I still love buttons and miss my grandma. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

You can send all your buttons to me!!! I would gladly take them off your hands!

I love buttons! I would have to say my fascination started when I was about 3 years old. To keep my happy while Granny sewed she would let me look in her button jar. I ohhed and ahhed over those buttons for hours. I'm happy to say that I inherited my Granny's quilting and sewing goodies when she died. Nobody else in the family was interested in her treasures.

I do collect some buttons. I have myDH grandmothers button collection . I love the wreath idea. I do craft shows in the fall & those would definately sell. I use my buttons on wall hangings & table runners, purses etc. I think that I have some buttons from all the way back to the 30's.

I do childcare and have for many years and when the kids seem restless or its stormy outside I pull out the containers of buttons and do the same as another reader said, we count, we learn colors and sorting by size or how many holes in each button! The kids settle down and do not even realize they are learning! My daughter loves my buttons too and she knows that they will be hers when I go. BUT NOT FOR A LONG TIME YET!!!!!!